There has been many an exhibition of late treading the narrow path between the arts, club culture and fashion – the V&A’s Club to Catwalk for instance, or the ICA’s A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s to Now.

Stateside this month the attention of The Brooklyn Museum has been drawn to Jean Paul Gaultier, becoming the East Coast venue for The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, the first international exhibition dedicated solely to the enfant terrible of French fashion.

This multimedia exhibition charting his explosive output since the 1970s is organised around seven themes, each tracing the influences on Gaultier’s development, from the streets of Paris to his collaborations with filmmakers like Pedro Almodóvar. Accessories, sketches, stage costumes, excerpts from films, and documentation of runway shows, as well as iconic photographs from the likes of Paolo Reversi explore how Jean Paul Gaultier’s eclectic combination of historical references, eroticism, and irony, have established him as the most provocative designer of his generation.

Celebrating a true womenswear vanguard, he’s just as brilliant at menswear. Enjoy what is here, regardless of sex, and scratch beneath to see just how his designs have challenged societal, gender, and aesthetic codes in many unexpected ways.

The exhibition hits home turf in April 2014, coming to London’s Barbican. If you’re in the capital and craving an epic Gaultier fix before that, take a trip to Shoreditch’s House Of Liza. Owner Gonçalo Velosa told HERO recently of his breathtaking archive sale, which runs until November. So grab a piece of history you can call your own.

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk
October 25, 2013–February 23, 2014
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11238-6052